The Best New BBQ Joint in America | Bon Appetit

Buxton Hall's chef and pitmaster Elliott Moss will be the first to tell you he's not classically trained. In fact, he got his start in the kitchen of a South Carolina Chick-fil-A. After years of chasing his dream of opening up a BBQ restaurant, Moss opened Buxton Hall in Asheville, NC.
"You can smell great barbecue long before you walk through the door.
Outside Buxton Hall Barbecue, it’s no different: The air hangs with the faintly smoky aroma of crispy pork. It only intensifies as you enter the brick-walled space, past T-shirts for sale (my favorite: SMOKED WHILE YOU SLEEP). In the open kitchen, pitmaster Elliott Moss stands over a whole pig, picking and chopping hunks of smoked meat. This is hog heaven.
We’re in the midst of a barbecue boom. Old-school joints are getting their due, and new-school smokehouses like Buxton Hall are proudly carrying on the tradition while shaking things up. Here barbecue means local pasture-raised pig (not the usual commodity stuff) smoked 18 hours over oak, cherry, and hickory. The pork is juicy and sweet and melts in your mouth. It’s how Moss learned it from his grandfather growing up in Florence, South Carolina.
The egg-enriched buttermilk mixture makes for an especially crunchy and craggy coating. This recipe is from Buxton Hall, one of the Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016."
"We want you to feel like you're at somebody's home, being taken care of really well." -Elliott Moss, pitmaster-owner, Buxton Hall.
"Good ’cue isn’t the only thing that makes the experience. The fried chicken sandwich—the meat smoked before it hits the fryer—was the best version of that now ubiquitous dish I had all year. Mussels, which should have no business in a barbecue joint, were so good I sopped up the smoked tomato sauce with buttermilk hushpuppies.
Sides, so forgettable at other spots, are anything but. Green beans catch drippings beneath the pigs; collards swim with swine bits and cider vinegar; potatoes are smoked, mashed, and topped with hog gravy. A twist on the classics with one thing in common: the flavors of the pig. And that’s what Buxton Hall is all about.
It’s no secret that we’re living in the midst of a bona fide barbecue boom. Old-school joints are finally getting their due, and new-school smokehouses—like Buxton Hall—are proudly carrying on the tradition while shaking things up a little. Here barbecue means local pasture-raised pig (not the usual commodity stuff), smoked 18 hours over a mixture of oak, cherry, and hickory, until it's juicy and sweet—just how chef Elliot Moss learned it from his grandfather in Florence, South Carolina. That said, whole-hog ’cue isn’t the only thing going on in this gigantic dining hall. (If it appears to be the size of a roller rink, that's because it once was one.) The juicy fried chicken sandwich is topped with creamy white barbecue sauce and pimiento cheese and a slice of American cheese. Sides, often forgettable at other barbecue places, allow Moss to flex his creative muscles: green beans cook under the pig, catching all those fatty drippings; potatoes are smoked, then mashed and topped with hog gravy; braised collard greens are swimming with swine bits and a healthy spike of cider vinegar. All these twists on the classics have one thing in common—the flavors of the pig. Ultimately, that's what Buxton Hall is all about."
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The Best New BBQ Joint in America | America's Best New Restaurants | Bon Appétit
“Cornbread and Butterbeans” by page1image15088Whiston Don, performed by Carolina Sunshine Trio from WPAQ: The Voice of the Blue Ridge Mountains (1999) courtesy of Warner/Chappell & Co.
“Honey It Must Be Love” by Blind Willie McTell from The Postwar Recordings of Blind Willie McTell & Curley Weaver (1991) courtesy of Concord Music Group
“Peak Beak” by Doctor Turtle courtesy of the artist
“Intellectual Flypast” by Doctor Turtle courtesy of the artist
Animation by Laura Salaberry
RV Roadtrip footage courtesy of Michael Files